


Aftermath

by DestielTheShipOfDreams



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dead Castiel, Emotionally Hurt Castiel, Emotionally Hurt Dean Winchester, Emotionally Hurt Sam, Post-Episode: s12e23 All Along the Watchtower, Season/Series 13 Speculation, Short, Temporary Character Death, emotionally hurt me if cas isn't alive and well by the end of s13e01, jack brings cas back, jack is not evil, no actual explicit destiel, vague hints of destiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-06 03:45:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11027940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestielTheShipOfDreams/pseuds/DestielTheShipOfDreams
Summary: How I'd like S13 to start, following directly on from the S12 finale. Assumes that it was our Cas who died. I have other ideas too but this was the first one I came up with after watching the episode.





	Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> Usually with these things I say 'obviously they won't do it like this' but I actually think they might do it like this... IF it was our Cas who was killed. I'm thinking it was probably doom!Cas, but I hadn't really considered that possibility fully when I started writing this. Whatever, as long as Cas isn't dead for long or at all.

Sam has imagined a lot of adjectives that might be applied to meeting the child of Lucifer. Terrifying. Awe-inspiring. Maybe even underwhelming, since he’s just a baby.

 

But as it turns out, he isn’t just a baby. And the only word coming to mind for Sam, standing in a darkened room opposite the naked spawn of Satan, is awkward.

 

The kid - because for all his post-pubescent appearance and self-aware smirking, he still only looks about 20 and there’s something curled in and defensive about his stance - has clambered to his feet and is staring at Sam. Just staring. That’s it. And Sam is aware, faintly, that he should be wary, that the creature in front of him is immensely powerful and potentially evil… but he’s hollow and distracted. He’s just watched both his old ally and his best friend die. And his Mom is gone. Just… gone.

 

“Hey,” says Sam numbly, not really knowing what else to say. The nephilim cocks his head, raises his eyebrows.

 

“Uh, hey,” he says in a flat, suspicious tone, despite the smirk still playing about his lips. His voice is smooth and beguiling, like Lucifer’s. Sam eyes him and the silence stretches on. Awkward. It’s just awkward.

 

“You must be Jack,” Sam ventures. The nephilim - Jack - nods slowly.

 

“I suppose I am.”

 

“Huh.” This is bizarre. But bizarre is the Winchester way of life. Sam sighs and gestures at Jack’s nude body. “Gotta find you something to wear.”

 

Jack stands still as Sam casts about the room. Thankfully, he doesn’t have to look far. A faded blue dressing gown is hanging from the back of the door. It was probably Kelly’s. Sam hands it to Jack, who puts it on without comment. It’s small on him, barely reaching his knees, short in the sleeves. It’s an odd sight, but Sam isn’t really looking. He’s barely paying attention.

 

“OK,” mumbles Sam, staring towards the stairs. He’s only just functioning, really. Why did he even come up here? Jack is important, for some distant reason, but Cas is dead. Dead. Crowley too. Dean is out there with Castiel’s actual corpse, probably losing his damn mind with grief. Mom is trapped in an alternate fucking universe. Sam was on autopilot when he sprinted into the house, but it was more than that. He was running. Running from the pain and shock of what happened, and running from the sight of Castiel’s lifeless body and those black, ash-smeared wings.

 

“You’re Sam.”

 

Right. The nephilim. Sam glances back towards Jack. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am. How’d you- no, you know what? That doesn’t matter. I have to go see to my brother. You can come, or stay, I don’t… I have to go.”

 

“Wait-” 

 

Sam is already hurrying down the hall, taking the steps two at a time, a lump rising in his throat. Fuck, he wants to wind it all back, just fifteen minutes, he wants to see Cas alive, he wants to see his Mom again-

 

Sam is almost to the front door when it swings open, and there stands Dean.

 

He looks shell shocked. Tear tracks are clear on his face but his eyes are dull and drifting, jaw slack and lifeless. He’s gripping the door frame as though holding himself up.

 

“Dean,” Sam breathes. His older brother focuses on him and Sam reaches out a shaking hand to clasp his shoulder, squeezing hard.

 

“Dean… where…?” Sam whispers. He’s trying to ask whether Cas is still where they left him. Dean shakes his head, eyes closing.

 

“In the car,” he rasps. Sam swallows, imagining Dean dragging Cas’s body all the way around the side of the house, arranging him on the seat, having to handle his dead weight and look into his slack face. He steps forward and pulls his brother into a tight hug.

 

Dean curls his arms around Sam’s back, exhales shakily into his shoulder. But he pushes him away after a few seconds, blinking at the floor. Sam lets him, wrapping his arms around himself instead. He feels wrung out.

 

“This is…” he can’t even finish. He doesn’t have the words to convey how messed up things are. But Dean understands anyway, nodding heavily.

 

“Yeah,” he murmurs.

 

“And the portal… it’s definitely…” Sam knows what Dean will say, knows that if there was any chance of getting Mom back then Dean would be out there right now getting it done. But he still feels his heart drop once more when Dean shakes his head.

 

“Gone.” The word is said with an awful rawness, but then Dean stands up a little straighter, blinks hard, takes a deep breath. He seems to gather himself somewhat. “Where’s the baby?”

 

Sam grimaces. “Yeah. About that. Not a baby.”

 

Dean frowns, looking too burnt out to really care but still attempting to seem engaged. “What?”

 

“He’s upstairs. He aged up, I guess, ‘cause I’m thinking he wasn’t born 5’10” with a full set of teeth.”

 

The older Winchester shakes his head slowly. “Man, I can’t deal with this right now. He’s a fully grown dude?”

 

“Yeah, looks like it. He talks, too.”

 

“Fuckin’ hell,” Dean groans, scrubbing a hand over his face. “OK, show me.”

 

They trudge up the stairs and back to Jack’s room, but it’s empty. Sam looks around, heart rate increasing as he considers that Jack might have made a run for it. He calls Jack’s name as he strides back into the hall, Dean trailing after him. Then he stops. Of course. Treading more quietly now, Sam peers into Kelly’s bedroom.

 

Jack is perched on the side of the bed, leaning over Kelly’s supine form. He has a hand on her cheek and the other on her shoulder. He looks so young there, childlike in the dressing gown, gazing down into his mother’s face.

 

“Jack,” Sam whispers. The nephilim looks up.

 

“She’s sleeping,” he says quietly. Sam feels the crumbled remains of his heart grind into dust; tears prick his eyes. This is it. This is the moment that is too much, and he might just sink into the floor and melt away.

 

“No, Jack,” he chokes out, shaking his head. “She’s not sleeping.”

 

Jack actually fucking rolls his eyes. “Yes, she is. I brought her back to life, but I didn’t want to shock her. So I put her to sleep.”

 

Sam feels his mouth drop open. “You… raised her from the dead?”

 

The nephilim is about to answer, but right then Sam is shoved aside as Dean marches into the room.

 

“Bring Cas back too,” he demands fiercely, eyes bright and wild. Sam holds his breath and looks at Jack, hope billowing in his chest. The boy pushes to his feet and frowns at Dean.

 

“Cas? Castiel?”

 

“Yes, that Cas,” snaps the older hunter. “You can raise the dead? Well, he’s dead. So raise him.”

 

Jack’s eyes widen. “Dead? Who did that?”

 

“Your Dad,” Dean snarls. Sam steps up to him hurriedly, understanding his fury but not wanting to see his older brother piss off a mighty being within seconds of meeting him. They still don’t know what Jack is capable of yet. If he has healing powers that can raise the dead, he can almost certainly smite people with barely a flicker of an eyelid.

 

Jack looks puzzled for a moment, frowning. Then his eyes harden. “You’re referring to Lucifer.”

 

“Yes!” Dean almost shouts, stepping forward against the hand that Sam has on his shoulder. “Can you fucking help or not? We’re wasting time here!”

 

Jack glowers at Dean, incongruously dangerous in his undersized robe. “Lucifer is not my Dad. He spawned me. That’s all.”

 

With that, he vanishes.

 

Dean practically vibrates with desperate rage, whipping his head around to search the room with gritted teeth. “Where the hell did that little freak go?!”

 

Sam stands helplessly for a moment before he exclaims and throws himself towards the door. “He might’ve gone to Cas, come on-”

 

Both brothers clatter loudly down the stairs and out of the door, sprinting through the quiet darkness outside. They skid around the corner of the house, close to where the Impala gleams in the moonlight.

 

Standing beside her open door, peering wide-eyed at each other, are Jack and Castiel.

 

“Cas!” Dean chokes, overtaking Sam for the last few feet and practically tackling the newly revived angel into the side of the car. Sam staggers to a halt next to Jack, eyes on his brother and best friend.

 

“Oh, thank God,” he breathes, before doubling over and bracing his hands on his knees, screwing his eyes up to combat sudden tears. Jack’s jaw twitches.

 

“God had nothing to do with it,” he says lowly. “I did this.”

 

Sam huffs a strangled laugh, shaking his head, straightening up and rubbing his forehead as he observes the scene before him. Dean doesn’t seem to be relinquishing his grip on Cas, who looked shocked and stiff at first but now has the hunter wrapped up in an embrace, tentatively touching the back of his head with one hand. His blue eyes are enormous and a little terrified over Dean’s shoulder.

 

“Dean?” he questions hesitantly. “Are you alright?”

 

“You’re alive,” comes the muffled reply. Cas strokes his thumb against Dean’s hair as though testing the motion, slow and wary.

 

“It would seem that way.”

 

Dean finally pulls back, peering at Cas with damp eyes. “You were dead, man.”

 

His voice is thick and his expression is anguished, transforming into confusion when Cas blinks and replies: “I was. I didn’t succeed in detaining Lucifer and keeping him from the portal. I’m sorry.”

 

Sam steps up and pulls the angel into a hug of his own, squeezing tightly and then letting go. “Don’t apologise, Cas. We thought we’d lost you.”

 

Dean is nodding sharply beside Sam with a growing frown. “You shouldn’t have run in like that. You were never gonna make it.”

 

Cas nods. “I knew that. I made that choice.”

 

Sam sees his brother bristle and quickly speaks over his protests, turning to look at Jack. “We owe you a thank you, Jack.”

 

Dean scowls at Cas for a moment longer before reluctantly tearing his gaze away to focus on the nephilim. “Yeah. Thank you, man.”

 

Jack shrugs. “I need Cas too.”

 

Sam tilts his head in query and beside him, Dean’s eyes narrow suspiciously. He shifts to block Cas, his stance subtly defensive. “What for?”

 

Jack shrugs again. “Guidance. I’m pretty new here. I need a father, and I chose Castiel.”

 

All three Winchesters raise their eyebrows, Cas looking faintly shocked. “A… a father? I vowed to raise you, Jack, but I don’t know if…”

 

Jack grimaces. “OK, whatever you want to call it. I won’t call you ‘Dad’ or anything. But you said you’d be there for me. I’m holding you to that. I have a lot to do, and I need your help. You have to come with me.”

 

Dean turns to face the angel behind him. “Wait, you’re going off on some kinda road trip with him?”

 

Cas shifts uncomfortably, looking unhappy. “I did swear to look after him. Of course, I envisaged an infant. But… my belief in Jack is unchanged. He has a vision for the future, and it’s a vision I share. If he needs my presence by his side to achieve that…”

 

“Cas,” Sam mutters, stepping closer,“you sure about this?”

 

Cas looks up at Sam, opens his mouth and then shuts it again, eyes trailing inexorably back to Dean.

 

“Cas has made his loyalty to me clear,” Jack says coolly. He goes ignored, Cas holding Dean’s gaze with conflicted eyes. After several tense seconds, Castiel sighs and shakes his head, glancing away.

 

“I have to help him,” he murmurs. Dean swallows, the hurt on his face clear, but a moment later it hardens into contempt. He steps aside, scowling at the Impala instead of looking at anyone.

 

“Fine,” he grinds out. Sam shakes his head, disappointment growing in his face as he stares at Cas. Dean’s voice is biting when he continues. “Guess you’ll just leave again. It’s what you’re good at, right?”

 

Cas stares at him pleadingly. “Dean…”

 

“Just don’t, Cas.” Sam speaks with closed eyes, a muscle jumping in his jaw. He huffs a bitter laugh, shaking his head, opening his eyes only to glare at the ground. “This family is falling apart. Mom’s gone, you can’t even stick around when you come back from the dead-”

 

“Mary’s gone?” Cas interrupts, stepping closer to Sam with sharp eyes. “What do you-”

 

“She’s behind the seal, in the other universe,” comes Jack’s smooth voice. “Isn’t she?”

 

They all look at him. He shrugs. “I could feel that tear, the portal. Sort of. I know that some of this world was left on the other side.”

 

Cas’s mouth is open. His gaze moves between Sam and Dean, stricken. “I had no idea. I’m so sorry-”

 

“Actually,” Dean cuts across him, turning away and focusing on Jack. “That’s what we should have asked you first. That portal, or whatever it was. You made it, right? Yeah, we’re gonna need you to bring it back.”

 

Jack eyes Dean with cold amusement. “I am not here to serve your will. I have a vision for this world.”

 

“Listen, bud-”

 

“Jack.”

 

It’s Castiel. Everyone glances at him as he continues, his expression almost stern. “Please help them.”

 

Jack frowns at him. “There are more important things to consider than the fate of this one family.”

 

Cas sets his jaw stubbornly. “Not to me.”

 

Sam and Dean glance at each other as Jack and Cas hold their staring match. The tense silence ticks on for several seconds. Finally, Jack’s eyes flicker over the two brothers and he inclines his head with a dissatisfied expression.

 

“Very well,” he sighs, giving Cas a reproachful look. “I will take the risk and re-open the portal to retrieve Mary Winchester. But after that, I will owe none of you anything. I will be free to pursue my purpose, and Castiel? You will dedicate yourself to assisting me if you truly believe in my cause.”

 

Cas nods swiftly. “I will.”

 

“Alright,” murmurs Jack. He looks at Sam and Dean, who are breathing fast with hope-filled eyes. He jerks his head to the ground behind the car.

 

“Stand back.”

**Author's Note:**

> Cue doomsday universe adventures beyond the portal! Man I hope S13 spends some time really exploring the doomsday universe. Plz SPN, don't squander this...


End file.
